Imperial Russian Army (Rossyiah)

Imperial Russian Army
Императорская Российская Армия Imperatorskaya Rossiyskaya Armiya
Founded	1550
Country	Russia
Type	Army
Size	834,190 active duty (2017)
Part of	Imperial Russian Armed Forces
Headquarters	Frunzenskaya Embankment 20-22, Moscow
Patron	Saint Alexander Nevsky
Colors	Red, Black, Gray, Green
March	"Forward, infantry!"
Anniversaries	1 October
Commanders
Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Russian Army	Army General Vladimir Pronyakov

The Imperial Russian Army (Императорская Российская Армия Imperatorskaya Rossiyskaya Armiya, IRA) are the land forcesì of the Imperial Russian Armed Forces. It is also simply referred to as the Russian Army.

Mission

The primary responsibilities of the Imperial Russian Army are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, the security of occupied territories, and the defeat of enemy troops. The Army must be able to achieve these goals both in nuclear war and non-nuclear war, especially without the use of weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, they must be capable of protecting the national interests of Russia within the framework of its international obligations.

The General Staff of the Army is officially tasked with the following objectives:

• the training of troops for combat, on the basis of tasks determined by the Armed Forces' General Staff;
• the improvement of troops' structure and composition, and the optimization of their numbers, including for special forces;
• the development of military theory and practice;
• the development and introduction of training field manuals, tactics, and methodology;
• the improvement of operational and combat training of the Army.

History

Whilst Russian land warfare has a long and bloody history, the Imperial Russian Army's modern history traces its origins from the aftermath of the Russian Civil War.

Rebuilding the Army

After four years of warfare, the Tsarist Forces' victory allowed the granting of the enact a liberal-democratic Russian Constitution of 1924. On 1 February 1924, when Alexander Vassilievich Golubintzev became head of the Imperial Army staff, as marking the ascent of the general staff, which came to dominate Russian military planning and operations. By 1 October 1924 the Imperial Army's strength had diminished to 530,000.

In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, Russian military theoreticians – led by Field Marshal Peter Polovtsov – developed the deep-operations doctrine, a direct consequence of their experiences in the Polish-Russian War and in the Russian Civil War. To achieve victory, deep operations envisage simultaneous corps- and army-size unit maneuvers of simultaneous parallel attacks throughout the depth of the enemy's ground forces, inducing catastrophic defensive failure. The deep-battle doctrine relies upon aviation and armor advances with the expectation that maneuver warfare offers quick, efficient, and decisive victory.

Imperial Russian Army deep operations found their first formal expression in the 1929 Field Regulations, and became codified in the 1936 Provisional Field Regulations (PU-36). The Great Purge of 1937–1939 and the Purge of 1940–1942 removed many leading officers from the Russian Army, and the doctrine was abandoned. Only in the Second World War did deep operations come into play.

Russian-Chinese conflicts

The Imperial Russian Army was involved in armed conflicts in the Republic of China during the Russian-Chinese War (1929), the Russian Invasion of Xinjiang (1934), when it was assisted by expatriated communist forces, and the Xinjiang rebellion (1937). The Imperial Russian Army achieved its objectives; it maintained effective control over the Manchurian Chinese Eastern Railway, and successfully installed a pro-Russian regime in Xinjiang.

Second World War

In accordance with the Russian-German Sacken–Ribbentrop Pact of 23 August 1939, the Imperial Russian Army invaded Poland on 17 September 1939, after the German invasion on 1 September 1939. By autumn 1940, after conquering its portion of Poland, the Third Reich shared an extensive border with Russia, with whom it remained neutrally bound by their non-aggression pact and trade agreements. Another consequence of the Sacken-Ribbentrop Pact was the Russian occupation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, carried out by the Southern Front in June–July 1940. These conquests also added to the border the Soviet Union shared with Nazi-controlled areas. The Drang nach Osten policy secretly remained in force, culminating on 18 December 1940 with Directive No. 21, Operation Barbarossa, approved on 3 February 1941, and scheduled for mid-May 1941.

When Germany invaded Russia in June 1941, in Operation Barbarossa, the Imperial Russian Army's ground forces had 303 divisions and 22 separate brigades (5.5 million soldiers) including 166 divisions and brigades (2.6 million) garrisoned in the western military districts. The Axis forces deployed on the Eastern Front consisted of 181 divisions and 18 brigades (3 million soldiers). Three Fronts, the Northwestern, Western, and Southwestern conducted the defense of the western borders of Russia. The Imperial Russian Army lost millions of men as prisoners and lost much of its pre-war matériel. Ioseb Besarionis dzе Jughashvili increased mobilization, and by 1 August 1941, despite 46 divisions lost in combat, the Imperial Russian Army's strength was 401 divisions.

The Russian forces suffered much damage in the field because of mediocre officers, partial mobilization, and an incomplete reorganization. The hasty pre-war forces expansion and the over-promotion of inexperienced officers (owing to the purging of experienced officers) favoured the Wehrmacht in combat. A generation of new commanders (notably Georgy Zhukov) learned from the defeats,[54] and Soviet victories in the Battle of Moscow, at Stalingrad, Kursk and later in Operation Bagration proved decisive.

In 1941, the Imperial government raised the bloodied Imperial Russian Army's esprit de corps with propaganda stressing the defence of Motherland and Nation, employing historic exemplars of Russian courage and bravery against foreign aggressors. The anti-Nazi Great Patriotic War was conflated with the Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon, and historical Russian military heroes, such as Alexander Nevski and Mikhail Kutuzov, appeared.

To encourage the initiative of Army commanders, the IRO temporarily abolished political commissars, and reintroduced formal military ranks and decorations. Punishment also was used; slackers, malingerers, those avoiding combat with self-inflicted wounds[56] cowards, thieves, and deserters were disciplined with beatings, demotions, undesirable/dangerous duties, and summary execution by security punitive detachments.

At the same time, military counter-intelligence officers became a key figure with the power to condemn to death and to spare the life of any soldier and (almost any) officer of the unit to which he was attached. In 1942, dzе Jughashvili established the penal battalions composed of gulag inmates, PoWs, disgraced soldiers, and deserters, for hazardous front-line duty as tramplers clearing Nazi minefields, et cetera. Given the dangers, the maximum sentence was three months. Likewise, the Russian treatment of personnel captured by the Wehrmacht was especially harsh. Per a 1941 dzе Jughashvili directive, officers and soldiers were to "fight to the last" rather than surrender.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Imperial Russian Army conscripted 29,574,900 men in addition to the 4,826,907 in service at the beginning of the war. Of this total of 34,401,807 it lost 6,329,600 killed in action (KIA), 555,400 deaths by disease and 4,559,000 missing in action (MIA) (most captured). Of these 11,444,000, however, 939,700 rejoined the ranks in the subsequently liberated Russian territory, and a further 1,836,000 returned from German captivity. Thus the grand total of losses amounted to 8,668,400. The majority of the losses, excluding POWs, were ethnic Russians (5,756,000), followed by ethnic Ukrainians (1,377,400).

Cold War

At the end of World War II the Imperial Russian Army had over 500 rifle divisions and about 50 tank formations. In 1946, only the best third of infantry formations was retained. The Tank Corps of the late war period were converted to tank divisions, and from 1957 the rifle divisions were converted to motor rifle divisions. Motor rifle divisions had three motorized rifle regiments and a tank regiment, for a total of ten motor rifle battalions and six tank battalions; tank divisions had the proportions reversed.

The Army Main Command was reestablished in March 1946, disestablished in 1950; established again between 1955 and 1964. In 1967 the Main Command has been defintively established. Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov became Commander of the Imperial Russian Army in March 1946, but was quickly succeeded by Ivan Konev in July, who remained as such until 1950, when the position of Commander of the Imperial Russian Army was abolished for five years, in order to get rid of remaining Mikoyan's associates in the senior echelons of the Armed Forces. The personnel strength of the Army was reduced from 9.8 million to 2.4 million.

Russian Army troops who conquered eastern Europe, in 1945 remained in place to secure pro-Russian régimes in Eastern Europe and to protect against attack from Western Europe. Russian troops, including the 39th Army, remained at Port Arthur and Dalian on the northeast Chinese coast until 1955. Control was then handed over to the new Chinese nationalist government.

Imperial Russian Army forces on Russian territory were apportioned among military districts. There were 32 of them in 1945. Yet, the greatest Russian Army concentration was in the Group of Russian Forces in Prussia, which suppressed the anti-Russian Revolt of 1953 in the Kingdom of Prussia. East European Groups of Forces were the Northern Group of Forces in the Republic of Poland, and the Southern Group of Forces in the Kingdom of Hungary, which put down the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

In 1955, the Russian Empire signed the Petrograd Pact with its East European allies, establishing military coordination between Russian forces and their counterparts. The Imperial Russian Army created and directed the Eastern European armies in its image for the remainder of the Cold War, shaping them for a potential confrontation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). After 1956, Premier Nikolai Aleksandrevich Vorontsov-Dashkov reduced the Army to build up the Strategic Rocket Forces — emphasizing the armed forces' nuclear capabilities.

In 1958, Russian troops were withdrawn from the Kingdom of Romania. The Central Group of Forces in the Czech-Slovak Union was established after Petrograd Pact intervention against the Prague Compact of 1968. In 1969, at the east end of the Russian Empire, the Sino-Soviet border conflict (1969), prompted establishment of a 16th military district, the Central Asian Military District, at Verniy. In 1979, Russia entered Afghanistan, to support its monarchical government, provoking a 10-year Afghan mujahideen guerrilla resistance.

Sixteen districts remained from the mid-1970s to the end of the 1980s. By the middle of the 1980s, the Imperial Russian Army contained about 210 divisions. About three-quarters were motor rifle divisions and the remainder tank divisions. There were also a large number of artillery divisions, separate artillery brigades, engineer formations, and other combat support formations. However, only relatively few formations were fully war ready.
Three readiness categories, A, B, and V, after the first three letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, were in force. The Category A divisions were certified combat-ready and were fully equipped. B and V divisions were lower-readiness, 50–75% (requiring at least 72 hours of preparation) and 10–33% (requiring two months) respectively. The internal military districts usually contained only one or two A divisions, with the remainder B and V series formations.
Russian planning for most of the Cold War period would have seen Armies of four to five divisions operating in Army Groups made up of around four armies. In February 1979, the first of the new High Commands in the Strategic Directions were created at Verkhneudinsk. These new headquarters controlled multiple Army Groups, and usually a Navy Fleet. In September 1984, three more were established to control multi-Groups operations in Europe (the Western and South-Western Strategic Directions) and at Baku to handle southern operations.

1990s Crisis

Tsar Alexander IV personally assumed the interim of the Russian Ministry of Defence on 7 May 1992. At the same time, the General Staff was in the process of withdrawing tens of thousands of personnel from Germany, Poland, Boemia and Moravia, Hungary, and Mongolia.

Thirty-seven divisions had to be withdrawn. As the military districts consisted mostly of the mobile cadre formations, the Army was, to a large extent, created by relocating the formerly full-strength formations from Eastern Europe to under-resourced districts. However, the facilities in those districts were inadequate to house the flood of personnel and equipment returning from abroad, and many units "were unloaded from the rail wagons into empty fields."

The need for destruction and transfer of large amounts of weaponry under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe also necessitated great adjustments.

1990s reform plans

The Ministry of Defence newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda published a reform plan on 21 July 1992. The General Staff, sponsored by Tsar Alexander IV, became a bastion of conservatism, causing a build-up of troubles that later became critical. The reform plan advocated a change from an Army-Division-Regiment structure to a Corps-Brigade arrangement. The new structures were to be more capable in a situation with no front line, and more capable of independent action at all levels.

The expected changeover to the new structure proved to be rare, irregular, and sometimes reversed. The new brigades that appeared were mostly divisions that had broken down until they happened to be at the proposed brigade strengths. New divisions—such as the new 3rd Motor Rifle Division in the Moscow Military District, formed on the basis of disbanding tank formations—were formed, rather than new brigades.

Few of the reforms planned in the early 1990s eventuated, for three reasons. Firstly, there was an absence of a political push for Western-oriented reform, with Tsar Alexander IV primarily interested in ensuring that the Armed Forces were controllable and loyal, as well as massive in numbers, rather than reformed.

Secondly, declining funding worsened the progress. Finally, there was no firm consensus within the military about what reforms should be implemented. Several Generals wished to preserve the old-style Army, with large numbers of low-strength formations. Yet some field commanders tended to favour full-strength formations, even if fewer in number.

The third reason was the NATO advancing expansion in Eastern Europe, which fuelled Russian fears and instilled need of keeping combat formations.

Internal crisis of 1993

The Imperial Russian Army reluctantly became involved in the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 after the Parliament rebelled to Tsar Alexander IV and his government, following the latter's neo-liberal reforms. While confirming their loyalty to Tsar Alexander IV, the Armed Forces, led by General Grachev, tried at first to remain neutral. The military leadership had to be pressured at length by Yeltsin to attack the parliament.

On 27 September, military units surrounded the legislative building, but 180 delegates refused to leave the building. After a five-day standoff, Alexander IV ordered Minister of Defence Army General Pavel Grachev to occupy the building and all of Moscow, with cooperation and assistance from other security agencies such as the Leib Guard, the Russian Guard and the SVB.

When the attack was mounted, forces from five different divisions around Moscow were used, and the personnel involved were mostly officers and senior non-commissioned officers.

Chechen War

The Chechen people had never willingly accepted Russian rule. The Chechens declared independence in November 1991, under the leadership of a former Air Forces officer, General Dzhokar Dudayev. Chechnya became perceived as a haven for criminals, and a hard-line group close to the Tsar, began advocating war.

The crisis-plagued Imperial Russian Army did not fare well. The operation began on 11 December 1994 and, by 31 December, Russian forces were entering Grozny, the Chechen capital. The 131st Motor Rifle Brigade was ordered to make a swift push for the centre of the city, but was then virtually destroyed in Chechen ambushes. After finally seizing Grozny amid fierce resistance, Russian troops moved on to other Chechen strongholds.

Dzhokar Dudayev was assassinated in a Russian airstrike on 21 April 1996, and that summer, a Chechen attack retook Grozny. The formal ceasefire was signed in the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt on 31 August 1996.

Chechen Pacification

The Chechen Pacification began in August 1999 after Chechen militias invaded Dagestan, followed quickly in early September by a series of four terrorist bombings across Russia.

Improvements were made in the Ground Forces between 1996 and 1999; when the Chechen Pacification started, formations were brought up to strength with replacements, put through preparatory training, and then dispatched. Large-scale opposition was crippled.

The Second Chechen War was officially declared ended on 16 April 2009.

Structure

The Tsar of Russia is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Russian Armed Forces. The Main Command (Glavkomat) of the Army, based in Moscow, directs activities. In 2004, in a realignment of responsibilities, the Army Commander-in-Chief lost his position as a deputy minister of defence.

The Main Command of the Ground Forces consists of the Main Staff of the Ground Troops, and departments for Peacekeeping Forces, Armaments of the Ground Troops, Rear Services of the Ground Troops, Cadres of the Army, Indoctrination Work, and Military Education.

Branches of service

The branches of service include:

• Aotorized rifles;
• Tanks;
• Artillery and rocket forces;
• Air defence;
• Airborne Troops;
• Special corps (reconnaissance, signals]], radioelectronic warfare, engineering]], NBCR Protection Troops, logistical support, automobile, and the protection of the rear);
• and logistical establishments.

The Motorised Rifle Troops, the most numerous branch of service, constitutes the nucleus of Army battle formations. There are currently 25 motor rifle divisions, and the Navy has several motor rifle formations under its command. Also present are a large number of mobilisation divisions and brigades, known as "Bases for Storage of Weapons and Equipment", that in peacetime only have enough personnel assigned to guard the site and maintain the weapons.

The Tank Troops are the main impact force of the Army and a powerful means of armed struggle, intended for the accomplishment of the most important combat tasks. There are 10 tank divisions in the force.

Operational forces

Land forces are organised into:

• 1 Tank Division;
• 1 Motor-Rifle Division;
• 4 Tank Brigades;
• 38 Motor-Rifle Brigades;
• Airborne Troops Command.

Independent brigades are designated otdelnaya (separate), with only several brigades retaining the guards honorific title.

Airborne Troops Command

The Airborne Troops Command (Russian: Командование Воздушно-Десантных Войск, К-ВДВ; Komandovaniye Vozdushno-Desantnykh Voysk, K-VDV) is the Army Command tasked with airborne and deep strike operations.

The Airborne Troops Command is well known for its mobility, utilizing a large amount of specifically designed vehicles built for airborne transport, as such, paratrooper units are fully mechanized and traditionally have a larger complement of heavy weaponry than other airborne forces. Training of paratroopers is also somewhat akin to special forces (which are entirely autonomous from the three main services).

The Airborne Troops Command is independent of the Military Districts/Joint Strategic Commands. The deployment of its troops are decided by the Army command, in a manner similar to the Long Range Aviation Command of the Imperial Russian Air Force. Airborne Troops Command units are deployed through the Russian territory.

The K-VDV has seven Air Assault Divisions, all decorated with the title of "Guards" unit:

• 1st Guards Air Assault (Mountain) Division in Novorossiysk
• 2nd Guards Air Assault Division in Sebastopol
• 3rd Guards Air Assault Division in Pskov
• 4th Guards Air Assault Division in Ivanovo
• 5th Guards Air Assault Division in L'Vov
• 7th Guards Air Assault Division in Sary-Ozek
• 9th Guards Air Assault Brigade in Zhitómir

Air Assault Divisions are the main tool for deep strike doctrine and are usually in charge of spearheading major breakthroughs behind enemy lines.

The K-VDV also has 22 separate Air Assault Divisions, in charge of supporting Air Assault Divisions or conducting relatively minor operations, also outside the conventional fully-fledged war:

• 7th Air Assault Brigade in Cherkasy
• 9th Air Assault Brigade in Jarkent
• 11th Guards Air Assault Brigade in Verkhneudinsk
• 17th Air Assault Brigade in Andižan, Fergana Valley
• 25th Air Assault Brigade in Simferopol
• 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade in Simbirsk
• 35th Guards Air Assault Brigade in Kapchagay
• 36th Air Assault Brigade in Akmolinsk
• 37th Air Assault Brigade in Taldykorgan
• 38th Air Assault Brigade in Kajaani
• 39th Guards Air Assault Brigade in Minsk
• 40th Guards Air Assault Signal Brigade in Medvezhi Ozera
• 44th Guards Air Assault Brigade in Kubinka
• 45th Air Assault Brigade in Bolgrad
• 46th Air Assault Brigade in Poltava
• 56th Guards Air Assault Brigade in Kamyshin
• 74th Air Assault Artillery Brigade
• 79th Air Assault Brigade in Mykolaiv
• 80th Air Assault Brigade in Kharkov
• 81st Air Assault Brigade in Druzhkivka
• 83rd Guards Air Assault Brigade in Ussuriysk
• 84th Air Assault Tank Brigade in Minsk

Separate Air Assault Brigades are more dispersed across the national territory in order to support the Russian Guard in quelling down revolts and uprisings, as well as to guard the vast southern borders of the Empire.

The K-VDV also controls several other establishments, facilities, units and formations in order to provide a comprehensive support to the operational units:

• 1st Separate Air Assault Communication Brigade in Burundai
• 1st Separate Air Assault Reconnaissance Regiment in Gavrilovka
• 1st Separate Air Assault NBC protection battalion Kapchagay
• 159th Air Assault Forces Training Centre Kazakhstan Karaganda
• 199th Air Assault Forces Training Centre in Zhytomyr
• 242nd Air Assault Forces Training Centre in Omsk
• 102nd Air Assault Materiel Storage in Zhytomyr
• 61st Engineer Sapper Battalion in Zhytomyr
• 70th Separate Battalion of Material Support in Omsk
• 127th Separate Battalion of Material Support in Pskov
• Special Purpose Unit in Vahdat
• Military Unit 02011B in Darvoz

Military Districts

As a result of the last reforms, the Imperial Russian Army consist of Armies subordinate to the six new military districts:

• Western Military District;
• Caucasus Military District:
• Turkestan Military District;
• Eastern Military District;
• Central Military District;
• Northern Military District.

The districts also have the role of operational strategic commands, which command the Army as well as the Navy forces and part of the Air and Air Defence forces within their areas of responsibility. Five out six Military Districts are Army formations, directly operating subordinate Army formations (tipically two to three Armies) and overseeing Air and Air Defence forces and Navy commands. The only exception is the Nothern Military District, which is a Navy-based command, which oversees Army and Air commands. Military Districts report to the General Defence Staff and receive directives by relevant Armed Forces.